Dr. Francis P. McManamon, Chief Archaeologist for the
National Park Service and Chief Consulting Archaeologist for the Department
of the Interior, announced today that the Department intends to try
to obtain DNA samples for analysis on the ancient skeletal remains known
as Kennewick Man.

At the same time, the Department of Justice today requested
that the U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon, allow an extension
of time beyond the March 24, 2000 deadline set by the Court last year
in order for the Department of the Interior to consult with the five
tribes that have claimed Kennewick Man as their ancestor within the
next two weeks on DNA analysis and other cultural affiliation matters
and to complete the DNA analysis process.

Kennewick Man, whose age has been radiocarbon dated
at more than 9,000 years before present, is a nearly intact set of bones
and skeletal fragments that were found in more than 380 pieces in the
shallows of the Columbia River in July, 1996 in Kennewick, Washington.
The remains were found in an area under the responsibility of the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers. In March, 1998, the Corps entered into an inter-agency
agreement with the Department to assist them with issues related to
the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA).

On January 13, 2000, Dr. McManamon announced the Department's
determination that the remains were Native American for the purposes
of NAGPRA. Under the law, Native American is defined as human remains
"that resided within the area now encompassed by the United States prior
to the historically documented arrival of European explorers, irrespective
of when a particular group may have come to reside in this area, and
irrespective of whether some or all of these groups were or were not
culturally affiliated or biologically related to present-day Indian
tribes."

The Department is in the process of determining whether
a cultural affiliation exists between the ancient remains and modern
Indian tribes. A source of information will be studies prepared by experts
in the areas of archaeology, anthropology, ethnography and linguistics.
These studies will assist the Department in determining whether the
remains are culturally affiliated with the five tribes that have claimed
Kennewick Man as their ancestor and have historically resided in the
area where the human remains were found.

"We believe that DNA analysis will help determine the
biological and genetic racial ancestry of the remains, which has been
the subject of controversy in this case from the beginning," McManamon
explained. "It will be useful for cultural affiliation purposes if we
can obtain accurate mitochondrial DNA analysis. For example, certain
mitochondrial DNA 'haplogroups' are found in American Indians that are
not found in people of European or African ancestry."

In reaching the preliminary decision, the Department
used a report by Dr. Noreen Tuross from the Smithsonian Center for Materials
Research, and Dr. Connie Kolman of the National Institutes of Health
and the National Research Council, two DNA experts who evaluated what
DNA analysis of ancient remains could be reasonably expected to provide.

"The very low levels of human bone collagen, compared
with modern bones, that were detected in the bone samples analyzed by
radiocarbon labs are an indication that this is going to be a complicated
process with no guarantees of a conclusive outcome," McManamon continued.
"Our DNA experts expressed concerns that it may be almost impossible
to obtain accurate mitochondrial DNA analysis on such ancient bone samples
due to 'contamination' of such ancient samples by modern DNA present
in the environment."

The expert report by the DNA experts will be available
on the National Park Service's Internet site as soon as possible.